i'm glad you're up with us this morning. a lot to cover on a thursday, november 15th. we're going to start with that breaking news right now from israel. this morning, israeli television is reporting that three israelis were killed in rocket strikes in the southern region of that country. this comes as the israeli military has launched an aggressive campaign to cripple hamas after repeated rocket attacks. as many as 750 this year launched from gaza into southern israel. last night president obama spoke on the phone with prime minister benjamin netanyahu acknowledging israel's right to defend itself following but also urging netanyahu to avoid civilian casualties. hours earlier the israeli government posted this video from youtube showing an air strike yesterday in gaza that killed ahmed al jabari, he is the top military member of hamas. that was a widespread campaign against hamas targets that the israeli military had said it

will broaden in the coming days. this morning israeli defense forces, the idf, dropped leaflets over gaza warning residents there to stay away from hamas operatives. also on twitter, a clear message from the israeli defense forces saying we recommend that no hamas operatives, whether low level or senior leaders, thoush their faces above ground in the days ahead. president obama also spoke last night with egypt's president about working together to try to preserve peace and security in that region. tension between israel and egypt's new islamist government has increased since the attacks with egypt recalling the ambassador to israel in protest. for more on the situation, we want to get to our senior colleague in the region. that is martin fletcher. he is live in tel aviv with the very latest right now. martin, give us a sense if you can. we already have a good understanding of the tensions between israel and iran. the tensions in recent days

between israel and its neighbor to the sort of north, syria. and now this new test between israel and new islamist government in egypt. what should we be watching for? >> reporter: well, this potentially is very dangerous situation. on the brink -- on press hiss, israel attacking gaza killing the leader yesterday who by the way was the top of israel's hit list for ten years. but just as significant was israel's concentration on the rocket facilities, the storage of hamas in gaza, focusing on the long distance rockets. israel wants to eliminate the rocket threat against its cities from gaza. you mentioned in your introduction i think it is 850 rockets fired this year at israel. they fired 100 the last five days. that's what provoked the response. now the problem is that israel, it was sensed that israel's hands were tied because of their

relationship with egypt. egypt was in fear that egypt would end the peace treaty. that is one reason why israel feels it's calibrating carefully the attack on gaza.poised on th of gaz yachlt they're trying this pinpointed air attacks and also attacks from the sea. they resumed the policy of targeted assassinations against hamas leaders. they want very much to end the threat from gaza. but they also do not want a ground invasion partly because of the cost and also because they don't want to alienate egypt. so this is a very dachg us ange moment for this region. >> we know that they have great familiarity with attacks on two fronts. lebanon in the past and attacks from the south. again now with the new conflict that appears to be growing between israel and the golan heights and its border in syria. is there any concern that there may be new issues on the northern front as well? >> well, there is great concern.

it doesn't seem too likely at the moment. as a matter of fact, by the way, a few minutes ago, maybe within the last hour, an israeli soldier there was a report, unconfirmed at the moment that israeli soldier was wounded from small arms fire across the golan heights from syria. so that would be a first. there have been stray mortar ro rounds that have fallen. israel did respond with tank fire over the last couple days. but it's very small. very precise. and there is no real sense that this is the beginning of syria trying to widen the conflict to distract attention maybe from what's happening inside by opening another front with israel. but that, of course, is what israel is very concerned about. same as turkey. turkey is responding with fire after syrian shells landed inside turkey. that is now beginning to happen on the israeli front. bear in mind, this border between israel and sear why has been deadly quiet sense 1974. very successful agreement

between israel and syria to keep the peace. so, you know, this is another area that israel is focusing on very carefully, very concerned about but not too worried at the moment that it's likely to grow into a real confilgration. gaza is where all the attention is focused at the moment. >> we know you have a busy day ahead. we appreciate you taking time from tel aviv. thank you. today congress will hold the first formal inquiry into the deadly raid on ben gghazi that left four americans dead. david petraeus who was stejed to day before he resigned as cia director will now testify tomorrow revealing what he learned from his own independent investigation into the ben gaz i didn't remember -- benghazi attack. including john mccain and lundcy graham are calling for a watergate style investigation into the libya raid and the obama administration's response. the men also said they would try to block any attempt to nominate

susan rice as the next secretary of state. describing rice as unqualified for the job after she originally characterized the benghazi terror attack as a protest gone wrong. president obama and his first post election news conference yesterday fired back in sharp terms. >> let me say specifically about susan rice, she has done xr exemplary work. she has represented the united states and our interests in the united nations with skill and professionalism and toughness and grace. if senator mccain and senator graham and others want to go after somebody, they should go after me. and i'm happy to have that discussion with them. but for them to go after the u.n. ambassador who had nothing to do with benghazi and was simply making a presentation based on intelligence she had received and to besmir much her

reputation is outrageous. >> the republican senators were quick to respond. lindsey graham went on twitter and wrote the following. he said, "mr. president, don't think for one minute i don't hold you ultimately responsible for benghazi." senator mccain took his rebuttal to the senate floor. >> we believe whoever it is must be held responsible, i say, to the president of the united states. most importantly, the president of the united states who is commander in chief. who so far, in my view, has not exercise ed those responsibilits and not informed the american people of the facts. >> president obama also weighed in during that news conference on the scandal that ended the career of general david petraeus who resigned last week from the cia after a federal investigation exposed his extramarital affair. yesterday the president thanked petraeus for his years of service telling reporters that

so far there is no evidence that national security was compromised. meanwhile, the fbi agent who helped trigger an investigation that ultimately led to petraeus has been identified as this man, frederick humphries. humphries kick started the inquiry at the request of his friend jill kelley who complained about receiving harassing e-mails when the agency traced back to broadwell. broadwall was petraeus' biographer and the woman with whom he had that affair. the fbi is continuing to look through documents they took from broadwell's home monday night. so far agents have found no evidence of anything high lie classified. tomorrow president obama sits down with congressional leaders to kick off negotiations on how to try to avoid the so-called fiscal cliff. yesterday's news conference really did set the tone for the meetings. the president was confident in reminding house republicans that he earned political capital on election day last week to push his plan for tax hikes on the

wealthy. >> if there is one thing that everybody understood was a big difference between myself and mr. romney, it was when it comes to how we reduce our deficit, i argued for a balanced responsible approach and part of that included making sure that the wealthiest americans pay a little bit more. i think every voter out there understood that that was an important debate. and the majority of voters agreed with me. by the way, more voters agreed with me on this issue than voted for me. so we got a clear majority of the american people who recognize if we're going to be serious about deficit reduction, we have to do it in a balanced way. >> after wrapping up the news conference, the president met with a group of ceos to discuss the federal deficit. the business leaders say the meeting was positive adding the white house seemed committed to involving them in those upcoming fiscal talks. mitt romney by the way, is offering his take on what went wrong with his presidential candidacy. in a phone call with some of his

donors, romney defended his campaign saying the president won because he folk used on giving -- this was his words, gifts to hiss manics, african-americans and younger voters. >> what the president, president's campaign did was focus on certain members of his base coalition, give them extraordinary financial gifts from the government and then work very aggressively to turn them out to vote. >> mitt romney went on to say the president wooed hispanic voters with free health care and amnesty for children of illegal immigrants. as for voters in their 20s, romney said, "with regards to the young people, for instance, a forgiveness of college loan interest was a big gift. free contraceptives, he added, were very big with young college-aged women. obama care also made a difference for them because, as you know, anybody now 26 years of age and younger was now going to be part of their parents' plan, and that was a big gift to young people."

republicans including louisiana governor bobby jendal and scott walker denounced romney's remarks and keeping in the campaign spirit, obama senior adviser david axelrod tweeted the following. "still looking at america through that 47% prism, mitt tells donors the takers did him in." more news now. protests over austerity measures over europe continued late into the night. millions marched peacefully. as the day wore on, tensions boiled in over spain's capital madr madrid. protesters vandalized buildings and they clashed with officers. we want to take a early look at the markets with all that as the backdrop. steve, good morning to you. >> peter, very good day to you as well. let me tie in the story with what you've been talking about in the united states, ie, the debate on going after the lection about austerity, about

the fiscal cliff. we have our own fiscal cliff in europe. it is called austerity. it is going on especially throughout southern europe. it is designed to get the deficits and these enormous debt to gdp levels under control. the problem, of course, is there a human cost and there is an economic cost. the cost of the human front is unemployment. in spain and greece, for instance, 25% of the people are unemployed. and there is negative growth. in spain today we had negative 1.6% gdp figures. if austerity goes on, the people you see on the pictures are protesting and understandably. they're seeing the standard of living decline aggressively on the back of the tax hikes. it sounds familiar to the debate you're having in the united states. the difference is we're living it now. you're talking about it in the future as well. so the potential ramifications of the fiscal cliff have affected europe. >> shoot me an e-mail at waytooearly@msnbc.com. let me know why you're awake

right now. we've moved things around a little bit. we'll read the best responses later in the show. still ahead on a what early," as if things were not bad enough for the jets on the field, now people are sniping with reporters as the team's quarterback situation, this is only getting uglier. plus, david letterman isn't quite ready to let go of mitt romney, at least not yet. we'll show what you dave imagines with former governor is doing now. also a check on your forecast. "way too early" is coming right back. [ male announcer ] when it comes to the financial obstacles

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"way too early." a live look at the capitol. a little chilly out side as we join bill karins for a look at the forecast. i feel like you have show and tell behind you. >> it is. 24 hours ago it was an amazing northern lights show. they had a beautiful show. they saw it in wisconsin, too. is the best i've seen and captured. so impressive. this is the top of mt washington, the highest spots on the eastern seaboard, 6,000 feet. a weather observer said this was an awesome sight. one of the best shows in a long time in northern new england. haven't heard of any tonight. but, you know, you can go to space weather website and they try to predict when these will happen. usually it is in the northern

latitudes. as far as the forecast, a quiet day out there. we have rain in charlotte, north carolina, to columbia and through south carolina. a little bit of a wet drive through 95 and up into the areas around fayetteville. this is exiting during the day to day. it's not going to last too long or be anything severe. so that's good. temperatures as peter was mentioning, chilly across the country. but as we would expect now as we get into our cold weather season, as far as airports go and travel, there's really no snow and sno freezing rain or anything to talk about. this afternoon, a very quiet beautiful day. temperatures will be in the 40s and 50s. the storm i was talking about the last couple days, for once, our computers are trending towards a less significant ev t event. so this looks to stay off shore. tuesday to wednesday next week, looks okay for areas on the east coast. and looking well ahead for the whole thanks giving period from thursday to saturday. this map shows where the above average temperatures will be. it covers about, i'd say, three quarters of the country, peter. they're looking at temperatures warmer than normal through

thanksgiving weekend. so big thumbs up for many reasons, travel, shopping, you name it. >> that's like the old school coloring books. >> it is. >> thank you very much. we're going to move on to sports right now. just when you thought the jets couldn't get more dysfunctional, they d players vetting to the press over the quarterback situation. so the latest distraction for the 3-6 jets started yesterday when the "new york daily news" published an article with quotes from several unnamed jets players supporting struggling starter mark sanchez and criticizing the number two qb tim tebow. one starter went so far as to call tebow, "terrible." which prompted tebow to say he felt frustration and sadness about the report. can't we all just get along? espn reported that coach rex ryan was furious at his team's bae hafor calling them into a team meeting yesterday. afterward he said it was "cowardly to anonymously bash

tebow in the press." ryan also addressed the media about tebow and his qb situation. >> we never brought him in here to be the -- to be the starting quarterback. we already have a starting quarterback in mark sanchez. i thought i was clear on that from the day we brought tim in here. we're also clear that he's a football player and going to use him in different roles. >> i kind of feel like he is saying he is terrible. some jets still think there needs to be a switch at qb. sean green told yahoo sports, "something's got to change. you feel bad for mark, but at the same time you want to win games. we're not here to protect people's feelings." the jets travel to st. louis to take on the rams on sunday. remember, they are 3-6 right now. we move on to the diamond. baseball. cy young award winners were announced yesterday. listen to this. r.a. dickie of the mets he got the gold. also the rays david price came

away with the hardware for the national league and american league respectively. the 38-year-old dickey became the oldest first time winner in history from an nl team. he beat the competition in a landslide. he got 27 of the 32 first place votes. price, a former number one pick, he played for willie geist's alumni, vanderbilt. and justin verlander in the closest votes in history, just four points separated them in the talley. big shoutout to mr. dickey. coming up at the top of the hour on morning joe," president obama lays out his second term agenda and insists he has the public's support when it comes to raising taxes on the rich. we're going to kick that topic around. we'll talk about how the competing stories in washington could impact the president's plans. and when we come back here, we're going to look at the growing pains on capitol hill now that a record number of women are heading to the senate. let's just say one bathroom for

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back now on "way too early," we told that you israel launched a series of retaliatory attacks

yesterday after an air attack from hamas that killed three israelis. the death toll continues to rise on both sides prompting fears of an all out war in the mideast. if you want to sound smart today, tell your friends according to "the washington post," the recent air strikes by israel are the most significant attacks aimed at the gaza strip in four years. it was back in the winter of 2008 that a three-week israeli offensive killed more than 1,000 palestinians including 225 people in the single day. all right. enough of that real news. let's gather around the water cooler to watch what david letterman thinks mitt romney has been up to since the election. take a look. >> today mitt romney drew a picture of the house of representatives chamber and gave a state of the union address in front of it. >> and the fourth new entitlement obama care, gur you're going to appeal that. >> a message from pretend

president romney. >> pretend president romney, ladies and gentlemen. >> that is a pretty good drawer. it was a historic day for women on capitol hill yesterday. an army of female lawmakers at her side, nancy pelosi announced she would stay on as the party's leader. this picture before you is worth millions of votes, pelosi said. the telltale sign that more women are filling capitol hill is the overly stuffed senator's only women's restroom over in the senate. i'm told. i haven't been. yesterday senator two senators bumped into elizabeth warren and deb fisher for the first time while on a bathroom break. she tweeted, too funny. first power meeting with e warren and d fischer in the senator's only women's bathroom. going to need a bigger bathroom. there are a record number of women, 20 in the senate this term. still ahead on "way too early," why are you awake? your tweets, texts, e-mails, whatever you got. we'll take them.

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